Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore.

• Author: Ortmann, Stephan
• Position: Book review

Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore. By Chua Beng Huat. Singapore: NUS Press, 2017. Softcover: 223pp.

This well-written and insightful volume is the culmination of Chua Beng Huat's academic work on state and society in Singapore and brings together many of his path-breaking arguments that have significantly shaped our understanding of the country.

A society that is unlike any other in the world has emerged in the tiny Southeast Asian city-state which sits at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. Under the rule of the People's Action Party (PAP), a pragmatic leadership has significantly shaped the political system and ensured sufficient popular legitimacy to remain in power for more than half a century. Crucial to the government's support has been the public housing programme which provides housing for the majority of the population. Following Chua's proposition that Singaporean leaders were opposed to liberalism, the author discusses the city-state's formative years, the illiberal political system, the massive public housing programme, state ownership in the market, the politics of "race" and the limited steps towards cultural liberalization.

Chua begins by laying the groundwork for the PAP's rejection of liberalism, which he sees as rooted in the unique decolonization and nation-building process following the non-violent end to British colonial rule in 1963. After the PAP had gained power in 1959, a schism soon emerged within the left-leaning party and the faction around Lee Kuan Yew ultimately gained control. In the process, the PAP government not only eliminated any political opposition but also constrained the once powerful unions, reigned in the media and eventually used libel suits against its most vocal critics. Once the PAP had gained absolute power, its singular mission became national "survival" and it relied on performance legitimacy to fortify its hegemonic control. Chua argues that due to electoral setbacks in the 1980s and 1990s, the PAP moved closer to communitarianism. This involved a greater emphasis on redistribution which became increasingly urgent as Singapore's inequality surged in the 2000s. As a consequence, democracy was supposedly redefined to the extent that members of parliament no longer represented particular interests of their constituents but society as a whole and that the legal system shifted to an illiberal form of rule of law in which individual freedoms were sacrificed for...